SMEs are the driving force of economies. However, they face challenges that affect their long-term survival, such as developing ethical business environments. Business ethicsrelated research is underdeveloped in SMEs, thus limiting our understanding of business ethics in SMEs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how business ethics is conceptualised in SMEs, using the Delphi Technique. In SMEs, business ethics is viewed as doing the right thing, having integrity, being transparent, trustworthy, and behaving responsibly towards internal and external parties. The contribution of this article is that business ethics is perceived as upholding quality, being transparent and trustworthy.

South Africa is not only plagued by corruption, but also by a lack of ethics in corporate South Africa (Soko, 2017; Van Zyl, 2017). Ethics is reflected in the culture of an organisation, and corporate ethical culture should be measured. However, in the South African context, there is no reliable and validated measure of ethical culture. The purpose of this study was to empirically measure the validity and reliability of the corporate ethical virtue (CEV) model in a case study in South Africa through a quantitative research design. The CEV model (Kaptein, 2008(Kaptein, , 2009) was identified, and subjected to reliability and validity tests within a South African insurance company. The instrument's reliability was confirmed through Cronbach alpha coefficients. The article concludes that the CEV model has some application value within the context it was tested. Due to its limitations, this study makes a modest contribution, but can serve as a first step towards the use and development of measurement instruments for ethical culture in South African organisations.

Orientation: Good strategic decision-making (SDM) is vital for continuous long-term business performance and sustainability.Research purpose: This study aimed to determine the influencing factors of SDM in small-, medium- and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) and how they relate to each other.Motivation for the study: Strategic decision-making literature for SMMEs is underrepresented, particularly in South Africa. This article addressed this gap by investigating these factors, thereby improving the current understanding of SDM and enhancing environmental scanning and effective SDM in SMMEs.Research design, approach, and method: A qualitative approach was adopted, implementing the interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) research technique involving a focus group session and interviews. Themes where identified through inductive and deductive coding. A total of 13 SMME owners participated in the study.Main findings: The main findings identified five categories of influencing factors, namely Risk, SMEracter, Operations, Limitations and/or Opportunities and/or Rewards. The sub-themes highlighted unique influencing factors such as ‘fuzzy feel good’, financial potential, time, capacity, core of the entity and ‘engine’. The findings also highlight how the five categories of influencing factors relate to each other in the SDM context.Practical/managerial implications: The findings provide SMME managers and/or owners with insight into that which influences their SDM, and how these factors relate to each other. Such knowledge improves SDM, environmental scanning, and assists in identifying how to mitigate influencing factors during SDM.Contribution/value-add: This article makes a theoretical contribution by providing additional insights pertaining to the influencing factors of SDM in SMME, and how they relate to each other, adding to the body of knowledge related to SDM in SMME.